Egg Hunt!

Every year, a couple women at Woodberry hold an Easter Egg hunt for all the faculty/staff kiddos. For some reason that I can no longer remember, we didn't go last year, but we made it this year, and I'm so glad we did. What fun!! Out on the lawn of campus, plastic eggs are either on the lawn near the starting point (for the little kids) or hidden farther away (for the bigger kids). Jason headed out of lacrosse practice a bit early so he could see the fun, and I'm glad he got to see it in person. It was so cute to see all these little kids running around the lawn looking for eggs.

First a group shot. Have you ever tried to take a photograph of 25 young children without some of them turned around/making faces/poking their neighbor/crying/etc.? Yeah ... Not. Going. To. Happen. That's okay, though, they're still cute. Sierra is there in the front row next to Allie (6), who I instructed "Don't let her go." I had to at least keep her on the step long enough for her to be in the picture. Sierra had already spotted the eggs in the grass and was determined to get over there and pick them up. Oh, did she howl when I wouldn't let her because it wasn't time to start yet!
But then ... it was time to start! Sierra was excited. She would pick up an egg, put it in her basket and then run off (without her basket) to find another one (with me calling, "You forgot your basket!").

Getting some help from Daddy

Of course, when you finish your egg hunt, you have to investigate the booty.

And check out what everyone else found!




I mentioned that it's tough to get a great picture with 25 kids. Turns out, even getting 3 1-year-olds to all look at the camera at the same time is not much easier. Hey, at least we got all three mamas looking up and smiling! Here are Harper, Sierra, and Sophia with Lorae, me and Sarah.

Can you believe that it was just a year ago when these little girls were these itty bitty girls?! I know! It's crazy!

Happy hunting!!

A spring walk

It's been a busy day. Which means, my living avoided getting completely trashed because we were out of the house for much of the time. We started out taking the dogs out for a walk on this lovely day. And it was lovely. Perfect, actually. Not hot, not cold, the flowering trees are blooming all over campus, there was the smell of fresh-cut grass in the air. Ahhhhh ...

I think this red maple is gorgeous, both in form and color.
The color is not from leaf buds, but from the plant's seeds. These are the early spring version of those "helicopters" you see on all maple trees in the fall.
Nothin' like a roll in the grass on a spring day!

Then we headed up for a group play-date with several of the Woodberry 2-and-under set. Let me try and remember who all was there ... Tommy, Spencer, Mason, Aubrey, Harper, Sophia, Lydia, Sierra ... I think that was everyone. No photos, though. It was too chaotic trying to keep this on from taking a toy out of that one's hand and preven that one from drinking out of another one's sippy cup. Fun, though. Very fun.

Then it was lunch time, followed by Sierra walking home herself (which takes awhile),

(There she goes!)

then we played a bit and Sierra napped, woke up and was still cuddly, and I managed to get her back to sleep. We headed over to the bus stop to play with the little kids and then shortly after returning home again, headed up to campus for the annual faculty/staff children's Easter egg hunt. More on that later.

The Sunday paper

Jason and I get the Sunday Washington post. We used to really love sitting around on Sunday morning with our coffee, sharing the different parts of the paper. Life is a lot more hectic, now, with a little on in the picture, and there are weeks where we barely make a dent in all those sections of the paper, but we still keep up the tradition. Of course, Sierra want to do everything we're doing, so as soon as we pull out the paper, she's bobbing around yelling, "Pay-pa! Pay-pa! Pay-pa! Hold-dit! Hold-dit!" Of course we don't want to give her sections that we still want to read because her version of "reading the paper" involves pulling all the pages apart and throwing them on the floor. Usually she get the "Jobs" section (since neither of us is currently looking for a job that would be posted in the Washington Post) or section of the previous week's paper. This past Sunday, Sierra really dug the "Sunday Paper Hat." I think everyone should have one. (Don't you?)

Out of the Attic

I finally ventured into the attic to retrieve this:

It was time. I'm down to two pairs of pants that fit and all of my shirts are just a wee bit too short! I find, though, that I'm in that weird in-between stage where my regular clothes don't fit right because they're a touch too small and my maternity clothes don't fit right because they're a touch too loose. Sigh. I'm sure that won't last much longer though. I'm officially at the 20 week mark today which is the 1/2 way point of this pregnancy. Yikes! Already 1/2 way there!!

Big girl hair

Lately, when I look at Sierra, I don't my tiny little baby any more. I see a happy, beautiful, vibrant girl. It is wonderful of course, that we have this amazing (sometimes devilish) angel as our child, but also sad because of what she will never be again. You don't realize until you are a parent how heartbreaking and bittersweet it can be to see your children grow up before your eyes. Time just slips by so quickly. Sometimes I want to take time and freeze it, extend each second, breathe in every moment deeply and fully before letting it pass. But it doesn't work like that. Days flash before our eyes, and before we know it, our babies simply aren't babies any more. And mine isn't even two yet!! It was only just over 21 months ago that this was Sierra:

"Baby burrito," all wrapped up, a tiny little helpless munchkin.

And just 12 short months ago, she had blossomed into this lovely little babe:
Mobile and smiley and into everything, but still very much a baby.

Today, Sierra wore pig tails for the very first time. And it's so difficult to caputure her on camera because she is constant motion. If you don't act quick, she's gone! (My mother-in-law learned when she was visiting that if you hesitate, the opportunity for a picture will pass you by!) I think the hairstyle emphasized even more how much of "big girl" my baby has become. Yesterday, she had on her jacket and backpack and she looked like she was ready to be off to school (thankfully, we still have a few more years before we reach that milestone!). For now, though, the only school is the learning she does every day, reading book and looking at flowers and running around the yard learning about her world.

Hats and sand

As we were just about to head outside the other day, Sierra started saying "Hat! Hat! Hat! Hat!" and tapping the top of her hat (the sign for hat). I don't know if I've mentioned this, but Sierra doesn't wear hats. I've tried to put cute hats on her head, and she always takes them off immediately. Even when it's definitely cold enough to be wearing a hat, and one probably should be wearing hat, she usually takes them off. But this time, she wanted a hat, and I was down with that, so I was off to find a sun hat that fit her, which I didn't even know if we had. Tell me she's not cute!

Wheeeee!!

So serious

Once we got outside, the hat lasted a bit, but it was rather quickly cast aside (no surprise there), along with her shoes, which she refused to put back on (I guess the day was just too nice to be bothered with shoes). Oh well, I guess a sandbox is more fun without shoes anyway! Did you have a sandbox when you were a kid? I did. I spent hours there. What kid doesn't like sand? Sierra, it seems, is no exception. While she didn't spend hours there, a couple of bowls and a spoon did capture her attention for fairly long amount of time, relative to how long her attention usually stays focused on one thing. Just look at that focus and intensity. Can't even be bothered to look up at me.

Jason's stand-in

Early Saturday morning, Jason left for Florida to coach lacrosse for week.

Late Saturday morning, Sierra and I drove to Dulles to pick up his mom (aka Nana Diane, aka "Gamma"). She went home yesterday, and J will get home tomorrow, so their paths never crossed while she was here, but that's okay. One of the reasons she was here was because he was going to be gone. Just the book reading itself is a full time job (I needed some help!). Diane was impressed that Sierra knew the titles to all her books. Well, she knew a title to all her books, sometimes it's a Sierra adaptation of the title. For example, we have a book about a little boy named Peter called "The Snowy Day." The Sierra adaptation is "Peter." Another is called "I love my Daddy Because," which is "Daddy Book." Then there's "Guess How Much I Love You," (thanks Auntie Tania!) about Big Nutbrown Hare and Little Nutbrown Hare, which Sierra calls "Hare Book," though I think it's actually "Hair Book," because she touches her hair when requesting that one be read to her.

Unfortunately, Diane really didn't the best deal in terms of weather while she was here, until the last day, but we made the best of it. Sunday morning, we went to the (indoor) Barbee Center where Sierra and I played on the pole vault pit and threw basketballs around while Diane used the track for her workout. We had a fairly relaxed Sunday and drove up to Gainesville on Sunday evening to have dinner with Uncle Zach (at least she got to see one of her progeny while she was in the area!).

Monday was windy and overcast, but the rain was intermittent, so we managed to get some time outside to play.




We were playing on the turf field when the bus that brings the elementary school kids back to Woodberry showed up. Sierra saw it and yelled "Bus!" then "Kids!" so we had to go say hello to the big kids. Sierra helped Maddie build a rock border (what a helper!)
Tuesday looked like it was going to be much the same weather-wise, but alas! Finally, the sun made its appearance Tuesday afternoon. We headed down to the downtown mall in Charlottesville where we wandered around, had a soup snack from Revolutionary Soup and then stopped for some gelatto.

Sierra spied a squirrel running along the walkway, so she started "clicking" at it and ran over toward it. This was clearly a squirrel who is used to pilfering food from people. Though it didn't let Sierra get too close, it was clearly hoping she had something to eat. It kept running around and around the tree (not up the tree) as she tried to get closer to it. Then it would run up the tree and come back down on the opposite side of where she was standing.


Before heading home, we stopped at one of my fave shops on the downtown mall, J. Fenton Gifts/Quilts Unlimited. They have an awesome eclectic mix of items in there, I find something interesting to look at every time I go in. I wanted Diane to check out the place, but I also wanted to get Sierra a little something. It was a new book: The Foot Book, which she loved when we were visiting Monica back in January. I asked her if she wanted to hold it or if she wanted a bag and she said "Hoad it." Then before we left the store she changed her mind to "Inna bag." Nana spent much of the ride home helping Sierra put the book back in the bag when she took it out, until the back ripped too much to be useful anymore.

Nana Diane had to leave yesterday, but her flight wasn't until late afternoon, so we had the morning to spend together before driving to the airport. A lot of the Woodberry faculty are out of town for spring break, but we still met up with Lorae and Harper and Laura and Spencer to play in the sun for a little bit Wednesday morning. Sierra made sure to take some time to stop and smell the roses pansies.

After lunch, we headed up to Dulles again. Sierra slept most of the way there, but on the way back, she mostly just chattered away to me the whole time, which was a whole lot better than screaming and yelling. When Diane first left there was a little bit of "Nana! NAAA-NAAA!" but she calmed down pretty quickly and kept telling me "Paw-paw. Mase-y. Spoc-o. Kee-cats." Since you probably need a translation, that was "Grandpa. Maisy. Sparkle. Kitty-cats." Nana Diane told Sierra she had to go home to see Paw-paw and Maisy and Sparkle and the kitty cats and of course Sierra remembered all of it and told me about it on the way home. I also got to hear about baby cows, birds flying outside, big trucks, and bus coming. Good to know!